Learning organizations’ enable companies to remove hierarchical levels and to
introduce a flatter organizational structure, which can lead to reduced costs and increased
productivity. A recent Danish study has proved coherence between a flat, integrative
organizational structure and an increased productivity. This enables a kind of
management in which the managerial form is not as direct as it is in more traditional
structured companies. Value-based management is advanced as a possible answer to the
question of which managerial form that is appropriate for these kind of companies.
In the article, value-based management is described as well as the underlying factors that
are affected by such a managerial form. Required managerial elements in relation to
value-based management are advanced. Examples from Hewlett-Packard are used to
illustrate both the use of value-based management in practice and the underlying factors.

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The main objective of the paper is to provide an analytical framework based on
evolutionary arguments, explaining the role and rationale of technology policies based
on inter-organisation cooperations. We try to combine different arguments developped
in the literature in order to define a coherent approach of technology policies :
organisational, failure and paradigmatic approaches. We will argue that the role of
technological policies and their design are contingent on whether knowledge creation
emerges in an existing technological paradigm or will be at the origin of a new one.
In the first part of the paper, we will define two broad kinds of cooperative policy :
one (pre-paradigmatic) devoted to create radically new knowledge by exploring new
avenues in order to initiate a new technological paradigm and the other (paradigmatic)
devoted to create new knowledge by using exploitation mechanisms in order to
maintain technological options and variety, inducing innovation and reducing
negative lock-in effects. We specify also for each situation the kind of intervention
(coordination, institutional structure) compatible with the objective of the policy.
In the second part of the paper, we will illustrate our theoretical arguments by
focusing on two types of cooperative programme : one devoted to create a new
knowledge base in a pre-paradigmatic phase (the development of a digital switching
system in France) and the other more devoted to foster knowledge in existing
paradigms (the case of Brite-Euram).

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Organizational routines and capabilities have become key constructs not only in evolutionary
economics, but more recently also in business administration, specifically strategic management.
In this chapter we explicate some of the underlying theoretical problems of these concepts, and
discuss the need for micro-foundations. Specifically, we focus on some of the explanatory
problems of collective-level theorizing, and what we think are tenuous assumptions about human
beings. We argue that individual-level considerations deserve significantly more consideration,
and that evolutionary economics and strategic management would be well served by building on
methodological individualism.

Although biotech start-ups fail or succeed based on their research few attempts have been made to examine if and how they strategize in this core of their activity. Popular views on Dedicated Biotech Firms (DBFs) see the inherent uncertainty of research as defying notions of strategizing, directing instead the attention to the quality of their science, or the roles of boards, management, and collaborative networks etc.
Using a unique comprehensive dataset on Danish and Swedish biotech start-ups in drug discovery this paper analyzes their research strategies. Adopting a Simonean point of departure we develop a contingency view on complex problem solving which structures the argument into three steps:
1) Characterising the problem architectures addressed by different types of DBFs;
2) Testing and confirming that DBFs form requisite research strategies, by which we refer to problem solving approaches developed as congruent responses to problem architectures;
3) Testing and confirming that financial valuation of firms is driven by achievements conforming to requisite research strategies. These strategies, in turn, require careful combination of multiple dimensions of research.
Findings demonstrate that Shonhoovens classical argument that “strategy matters” is valid not only for the larger high-tech firms covered by her study, but also for small research-based start-ups operating at the very well springs of knowledge where science directly interacts with technologies. Even though a lot more research is needed along these lines, these findings offer new implications for the understanding, management, and financing of these firms.

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In many emergent markets, cross-industry alliances are necessary to develop and market new
products and services. The resource-based view suggests that firms form alliances to access or
acquire valuable, rare, non-imitable and non-substitutable resources, and that such access
determines the level of profits. Hence, firms confronted with the choice between partners with
strong versus partners with weak resource endowments should choose the former. We contest this
view and argue that firms benefit from allying with weak partners at certain times. In essence, we
suggest that partner selection involves assessing the relative importance of strong resource
endowments and aligned strategic aspirations over time. By adopting an evolutionary approach, we
show that appropriate partner selection criteria are dynamic and may involve allying with weak
partners in the initial exploratory stage, with weak and/or strong partners in the development stage
and with strong partners in the maturity stage. Our findings suggest that the resource-based
understanding of strategic alliances should be extended to include a more profound role for a
partner firm’s strategic aspiration.